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To:	linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu
Subject: Why we _should_ argue about RT, etc.
From:	lm@bitmover.com (Larry McVoy)
Date:	Thu, 25 Feb 1999 10:06:27 -0800

People really hate these arguments, at least some people do.  And the way
they suggest ending them is by blithely observing "Linus will decide".

I see a problem with that attitude, a big problem.  It's essentially a
attitude which says "we don't need to learn how to play together,
Mom will decide if we are doing it wrong".

We do need to learn how to play together.  Putting Linus in the middle of
every argument is not fair to him and will burn him out.  We should be
striving for a 100% acceptance rate from Linus on the patches, which 
means that we _have_ argued about them, as painful as that might be,
until we all agree that the patch is the right thing.

So my reply to the people who say "let Linus decide" is "do your homework
and make sure that the decision is yes".  One very reasonable way of doing
that homework is to screen your ideas and code with skeptics.  If only your
friends like what you are doing, then what you are doing is probably not
destined for the generic tree.  

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